Father Greg Boyle, author of such bestselling books as TATTOOS ON THE HEART and CHERISHED BELONGING, explains how Homeboy Industries, which he founded in downtown Los Angeles in 1998, has become the world’s largest gang intervention, re-entry and recovery program. Greg has been finding, as he says, “the thorn underneath” gang violence since 1988. His work has helped thousands of formerly incarcerated people around the world. But in LA Greg is an icon and a symbol of Angelino pride.

Choreographer Jacob Jonas, whose memoir CEMENTED BEAUTY is the intimate documentation of his 2-year battle with stage 4 cancer, told in stark, intimate, black-and-white photos and brutally honest and vulnerable journal entries, dictated to Jacob’s partner, Jill Wilson, who also provides an Afterword.

Ana Marie Cox is a political columnist and culture critic. Her writing has appeared in Time Magazine, G.Q., The Guardian, Sports Illustrated, The Washington Post, The Daily Beast and Esquire. She’s currently a contributing editor at The New Republic. She’s also a prolific podcast host. In her weekly podcast, Past Due, she and co-host Open Mike Eagle, chronicle the struggles of creatives in today’s collapsing media landscape.

George Saunders, often hailed as America’s greatest living short story writer, who's collections include THE TENTH OF DECEMBER and LIBERATION DAY. George discusses his new novel, VIGIL, as well as being raised Catholic in Chicago, growing away from the church and, joining his wife Paula to become a meditator, then an Episcopalian and, currently, practitioners of Buddhism.